three days, three planes

Hi Friends!

I'm writing from Cambodia tonight!  Got into Bangkok on Sunday August 22nd, and it's now Tuesday at 7:15pm.  I've been on three planes in three days to get here.  Not bad!  Petey and I arrived in Cambodia around 1pm today and shortly there after arrived in the Old French Quarter of Siem Reap, the main downtown area.  We walked around, got some food and a 2 dollar carafe of beer (i'm missing all the delicious craft beers already! ) and stopped at a market to get some fruit.  Waiting around for a Cambodian lady to ask you what you want is not the way to do it in those markets.  Point at what you want and ask how much.  We got some apples, pears, and what we thougth were lychees but the woman told us soemthing different.  Then we took a tuk tuk ride to the ruins of Angkor Wat for ""sunset".  It's pretty overcast here right now so we saw no sunset!  It's actually raining at the moment- but the cool air feels nice.  We only walked around the main temple Angkor Wat- for about 2 hours.  The ruins are so immense, it's hard to know where to start.  Pete and I just marvelled at how everything was constructed, how much time it took to engrave every detail of Shiva on every wall, to chisel the ornate decorations, to landscape everything, and how to manage when the monsoons came.  My favorite part of our short trip was visiting an area off to the side of the ruins where monks currently live and study.  It was very interesting to see how the past meets the present day and how presence of the ruins affects the daily lives of those who live and study there. The smell of incense was ever present, and I liked that. 

Our guesthouse sits along a busy alley off of the main road in town.  Some things I noticed and smiled at right away- you must leave your shoes at the front and salamanders count as roommates.  We also get to watch dvds for free as every room has a dvd player!  Pretty swank I know.  We're pretty wiped, the jet lag might be catching up with us, so we'll have a relaxing evening in our guesthouse.  Our tuk tuk driver was really trying to sell us on Traditional Cambodian dancing with a big meal, but seeing as how I was beginning to doze just on the 20 minute ride home from the ruins, we had to pass.  Maybe next time friend.